2018 Giant Health Event - The Future is FemTech

I’ve just arrived back from the 2018 GIANT Health Event which was held over the last two days at the Chelsea Football Club, Stamford Bridge in London.

For me one of the most exciting aspects of the event was that Women’s Health and FemTech were out there as headliners. A real affirmation of the growing interest and expected rapid growth in these areas. In fact, in March this year, Frost & Sullivan released new data predicting a market potential of $50 billion by 2025.

There’s a lot happening in this space from online apps that help women understand their moods, cycles and hormones, to products that help with pelvic floor exercises and improved sanitary products made from environmentally greener sources. It’s great to see the tech industry beginning to engage and address these topics.

Spotlight on the menopause

Menopause is also finally coming into the spotlight, helped by coverage from the BBC and websites such as hotflush.info. Women are feeling more confident talking about the impact menopausal symptoms are having on their quality of life.

I was privileged to talk about the work Cambridge Consultants has been carrying out over the last year in lifelong health and in particular investigating how technology can provide drug-free alternatives to help women going through menopause.

Our initial work has been focussed on developing a concept design for a small handheld cooling device that we have called ‘PEBL’ to help women cope better with the trials and tribulations of hot flushes. In the short video clip below you can get a glimpse of our process of creating a ‘works-like’ model to test with our focus group, and the ‘looks-like’ model – a concept for a potential product.

We are already thinking about additional product variations for the PEBL concept, including a bedside device and a more advanced automated cooling product. Both of which would be aimed at minimising the sleep disturbance experienced by women who suffer from night sweats.